When Kim Ima pulls up her Treats Truck at Sixth Avenue between West 19th and West 20th streets, she whips out her BlackBerry and sends a tweet (an update for Twitter users). Within minutes, familiar faces line up at the vehicle.
“They are waiting for the signal to come out of their office buildings,” says Ms. Ima, who started selling cookies and other baked goodies from a truck two years ago.
Twitter has made all the difference for a growing group of mobile entrepreneurs. The online social network is to them what the musical jingle is to ice cream trucks: a way to announce their arrival at a location.
Over the past couple of years, the number of food trucks peddling gourmet fare in the city has exploded, with many of them relying on Twitter to build up loyal followings. There are at least 10 such trucks that twitter, according to Web site Serious Eats.
“Kim Ima’s is the grande dame of the branded trucks,” says Kenny Lao, owner of Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, who started roaming the city’s streets with his own truck about seven months ago. “She took me under her wing. There are a lot of people who have since started.”
Mr. Lao says his first task in the morning is sending out tweets to his nearly 2,000 followers on Twitter to let them know where he plans to park his truck.
“Having the truck and being on Twitter is a great ambassador to the brand,” says Mr. Lao, who notes that some of his mobile customers don’t even know that he also has a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Chelsea.
Robert Arbor, who drives Le Gamin truck with its offerings of sandwiches and crêpes, started twittering in March and now has 700 followers.
While he has given up his blog—“I don’t have time,” he says—it is time-effective for him to send out tweets about the truck’s latest location or its specials of the day.
The truck has replaced two restaurants in Manhattan that he recently closed. Mr. Arbor continues to operate a café in Brooklyn.
Of course, some street food vendors forgo Twitter, preferring the old-fashioned business model of setting up in a regular location and establishing a neighborhood clientele. And some haven’t caught up with the new technology.
Mohammad Rahman owns three Quick Delight trucks—purveyors of Middle Eastern cuisine that were once runners-up in the Vendy Awards. Mr. Rahman, who started his business in 2001, prefers to park his vehicles in the same spots each day. He says he doesn’t twitter, “though it would be nice” to do so.
Perhaps it’s just a matter of time before he joins the Twitterati, along with brick-and-mortar restaurants.
This summer, city tourism agency NYC & Company is promoting Restaurant Week on its Twitter profile, sending out tweets with information on new deals and allowing diners to access exclusive benefits. The organization plans to give Twitter followers information on how to make early reservations for the popular promotion, which will run from July 12 to July 31.
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